Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas

Right Wing Limericks

by Al Bienstock

OBAMACARE PERSUASION

The Obamacare plan is pure junk.
Grade the plan and the rollout â€“ they flunk.
So, Barack has a plan â€“
If you are a barman,
Sell it by getting young people drunk.

Washington Examiner, 12/5/13: "During today's White House Youth Summit, President Obama called on young people to do whatever then can to promote his signature health Care law â€“ including plying their customers with cheap booze. 'If you're a bartender, have A happy hour,' Obama said..."

OBAMACARE SECURITY RISK

For consumer fraud on a grand scale,
On security, their grade is Fail.
Personal info at risk?
Their response is, tsk tsk.
Obama's team should all be in jail.

The Daily Caller, 12/4/13: "A 'good-guy hacker' who probed for weaknesses in the security systems of HealthCare.gov told Fox News on Wednesday that 'no security was built into this entire infrastructure' and that citizens' personal data is at serious risk."

CAN'T KEEP YOUR PLAN, DOCS OR DRUGS

Obamacare deserves lots of "ughs."
Its developers â€“ a bunch of thugs â€“
From the start were aware
That they'd destroy healthcare.
The latest is... you can't keep your drugs.

Forbes, 12/9/13: "Simply put, many drugs may not be covered at all, and the costs patients incur by buying them with cash won't count against out of pocket caps."

INCOME REDISTRIBUTION

Leftists shout that taxes should be "fair"
And the wealthy should pay their "fair share."
But the truth libs abhor
Is that the "rich" pay more
(A fact of which we should be aware).

Left-wingers choose to misrepresent
What tax payments by the "rich" have meant.
The poorest four in ten
Pay less than nothing, when
Their net's minus nine-point-one percent.

CNS News, 12/9/13: "The top 40 percent of households by before-tax income actually paid 106.2 percent of the nation's net income taxes in 2010, according to a new study by the Congressional Budget Office. At the same time, households in the bottom 40 percent took in an average of $18,950 in what CBO called 'government transfers' in 2010. Taxpayers in the top 40 percent of households were able to pay more than 100 percent of net federal income taxes in 2010 because Americans in the bottom 10 percent actually paid negative income taxes, according to the CBO study entitled 'The Distribution of Household Income and Federal Taxes, 2010' ... In 2010, the lowest Quintile's average rate for the individual income tax was â€“9.2 percent and the second Income quintile's rate was â€“2.3 percent."

Politicians have long used Orwellian double-speak to hide their true intentions. The latest iteration of this trend in Pennsylvania is the Governor's, Senate's and House Democrat's insistence on including "recurring revenue" in any budget agreement. Recurring revenue sounds much [...]

Next week, one of the most important pieces of legislation to come before Congress this year will be voted on by the Senate. Itâ€™s the latest and perhaps final Republican proposal to replace Obamacare.Itâ€™s primarily the product of South Carolina [...]

These were not necessarily victories for any political party as pundits arequick to claim but, rather, for ordinary citizens who are frustrated andangry with machine politics and the political elite who anoint candidatesfor their party loyalty rather than for their principles.

The caring, decent people of our country have only just begun to demonstratetheir displeasure.

Now the activists have established a new beachhead in Pennsylvania in theirfight for electoral freedom, with the Pennsylvania Republican Party chairmanas the target of their resentment.

In a newspaper account of Congressman Jim Gerlach's withdrawal from thegovernor's race, state Republican Chair Robert Gleason Jr. said that nowcandidate Tom Corbett "doesn't need a primary" to establish himself, andthat he is pleased that Corbett would be able to "husband his resources."

With this pronouncement Gleason effectively dismissed the candidacy of stateRep. Sam Rohrer and crowned Corbett as the party's gubernatorial candidate.Six weeks before party delegates meet to vote, Gleason had already writtenoff Representative Rohrer without giving him adequate opportunity to makehis views known or gauging the support of the electorate.

Many people regard Rohrer as an honest, common-sense candidate whose messageand principles resonate with a grassroots movement hungry for a rejection ofthe status quo. Gleason's blatant attempt to marginalize Rohrer by ignoringhim has provoked the ire of activists and Rohrer proponents from across thestate who are now demanding an open primary election that is free of biasand unfettered by political favoritism.

And well they should. Republican Party endorsements have included LynnSwann, Mike Fisher, Rick Santorum and others who were chosen for theirpurported name recognition and "electability" but were decisively rejectedat the polls.

The party and the people would undoubtedly be better served by allowing thevoters to select their candidate.

Those chosen by the party elite prior to the primary election have a decidedadvantage over rival candidates by allowing them the use of party resourcessuch as databases, research, and funding. This practice immediately tiltsthe playing field in favor of the endorsed candidate and will go far towardassuring their success. This must end if we are to restore the openelectoral process.

The coronation of candidates taints the integrity of those contenders bymaking them beholden to the powers that choose them and the specialinterests that finance their campaigns.

Gleason and the Pennsylvania Republican leaders have completely lost touchwith their base and are misreading the mood of the Pennsylvania electorateand, indeed, that of the nation. At the party meeting in February they willagain order their delegates to march in lockstep with the party powers toendorse their hand-picked candidate. But this time that edict will become aliability for those who are chosen.

Patriot organizations, taxpayer advocates, tea party, 9/12 and similargrassroots groups have come together and will speak with one voice torepudiate the power of the political elite who would strip us of ourliberty.

The governor's seat belongs to the people, not the party; it is time for allcitizens to demand of the Republican bosses an open, transparent primaryelection so that we, the people of Pennsylvania, may choose who will leadus.

David Baldinger is spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Coalition of TaxpayerAssociations, an organization of 36 taxpayer groups that is working forschool property tax elimination and education finance reform.